The Sun has slowly begun to set on the storied career of Derek Jeter. I say that only because today will be the first of quite a few notable lasts for Jeter. This will be the final spring training game of his 20 year+ career. With each passing “last moment” that goes by, the sun will set slowly on the captain’s final season. Hopefully all the pomp and circumstance will give way to one final twilight for Jeter, one final October.
Today’s game will be against the Marlins, and the biggest thing to take away from today will not be any ceremony or speech, no number in monument park or plaque on a wall. It will be as simple as this; The captain has had a completely normal and healthy spring and will head north just recently finding his timing at the plate. Yes, He’ll be 40 in June, but I have learned that whenever those doubters get going, Jeter always shines.
Jeter’s last Opening Day will be on Tuesday the 1st and the following day, Wednesday, April 2nd, the Astros (one of the teams that passed on Jeter in the 1992 draft) will honor Jeter with a brief ceremony before the game. Something that each team is bound to do for the captain as we saw last year with Mariano Rivera’s farewell tour. Wednesday’s ceremony will be attended by Andy Pettitte and Rodger Clemens (for some reason).
Next monday, April 7th, The Yankees will host the Baltimore Orioles in Derek’s final home opener. The details of the pre-game festivities have yet to be released but since the Yankees have all year to plan something special for Jeter, I don’t believe he will be the focus of any ceremony that day. The thing to watch will be the fans. Monday’s home opener will mark the first time the fans will get to say goodbye to the captain in the Bronx.
My heroes, my dreams and my future lay at Yankee Stadium. And they can’t take that away from me.
-Derek Jeter
